As ELAM MP, chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee Linos Papagiannis said after the meeting, the committee has sent a memorandum with proposals on the issue to all relevant ministries for a month now, based on the views of the competent bodies. "We have not received any official response so far from the government side, but we have been informed about some of the government's intentions and unfortunately there are ministries that have not even considered the issue yet," the ELAM MP said.
Referring to statistics, Papagiannis said that Cypriot births in 2011 were 8.541 compared to 1,873 births to foreigners, while since the beginning of 2022 and until today there have been 1,684 Cypriots and 520 foreigners. "If we compare the numbers, one can easily understand that on this scale there is a downward trend for Cypriots compared to foreigners. The fact that today Cyprus has a birth rate of 1.4%, which is not even enough to replenish the population, is particularly problematic and is becoming even more so as the increase that has been observed compared to last year is mainly for foreigners," he added.
"Also, the aging of the population is a phenomenon that unfortunately is increasing, there are more people over 65 compared to children under 16 and another very negative element is that we are the second worst country in the EU in this number," Papagiannis stressed and called on the government to take immediate decisions as "in a few years we will have no more room to talk about this issue so comfortably. As a committee we are not going to stop our efforts, we have heard the intention to register the issue in Chapter D for further pressure and I believe that in the immediate future the government must give some answers."
In response to a question on the sustainability of the Social Insurance Fund, Mr. Papagiannis said that there is no risk until 2080 based on an analysis.
DISY MP Prodromos Alambritis[/B] said that on the issue of under-generation some steps have been taken[/B] in recent years by the government, which they welcome. "We welcome the new housing policy from the Home Office which will help young couples. We look forward to the bill from the Department of Labour on paid parental leave, as we welcome the proposal to cover childcare fees for children in nurseries and children's clubs up to the age of four," he said.
"But more needs to be done. We are awaiting the submission of the third demographic policy plan by the demographic policy body to come before us and discuss it in the Commission along with the recommendations put forward by the Commission recently."
With regard to providing incentives for young families, Mr. Alabritis argued that "we must subsidise births, especially for third and fourth children because the indicators presented are inexorable", adding that "we must support families with three or more children by revising, where possible, the income criteria for child allowances and the baby's dowry. We need to look at how we go about adopting full-time schooling to support young families and help balance work and family life."
DIKO MP Zacharias Koulias said that the issue of under-birth rate "should be a matter of national policy and should be put in the national income, as it is for Defence", adding that a sum should be set to be invested in the issue of births, as "births have fallen below the safety limit and we have crossed the red lines a long time ago".
"At last the state must ensure that in the issue of birth allowances it starts from the first child, there should be a serious budget e.g. 5,000, in the second it should become 6,000 or 7,000, in the third it should go up another two thousand and so on.Moreover, a crucial issue, we will not make a horizontal policy for all births, it should be specific for Cypriot citizens. If we don't take immediate action, our future is doomed," he concluded.
Source: CNA
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs Cyprus Times
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Times
Source
